Artists:
Basel Abbas and Ruanne Abou-Rahme
Where:
Adiacenze – Vicolo Spirito Santo 1/b, Bologna
Period:
30.05-28.06.2025
Opening hours:
from Tuesday to Saturday 16-20
Curated by:
Amerigo Mariotti e Giorgia Tronconi
The song is the call and the land is calling
The land is calling the vanished through the song
The land haunts us
And we haunt them
The shadow, the echo, the ghosts of what remain
–Basel Abbas and Ruanne Abou-Rahme
In the context of The Dispersed Museum. Foreigners in Their Homeland ,Adiacenze is pleased to present Until we became fire and fire us (2023–), a two-channel video and sound installation by artists Basel Abbas and Ruanne Abou-Rahme, curated by Amerigo Mariotti and Giorgia Tronconi.
The work explores themes of loss, love, memory, and longing for land and freedom. Through sound, song and fragmented imagery, it evokes a sense of haunting and resistance. Appearing as poetry, broken melodies, or flashes of text and video, the installation reflects a yearning for “reconnection to a severed broken land, community, history, one that haunts, imprisons and moves us all at once.”
The piece is part of the broader long-term project May amnesia never kiss on the mouth, which investigates how communities from regions marked by colonial and capitalist-driven violence, particularly across Palestine, Iraq, Syria, and Yemen, bear witness to displacement and articulate forms of resistance through dance, songs, and performance. Drawing from the collected online recordings of anonymous figures singing, dancing, and speaking, the project revisits these acts through new performances developed in collaboration with contemporary Palestinian musicians Makimakkuk, Haykal, Julmud and dancer Rima Baransi. May amnesia examines the voice and body as political tools of resistance and reappearance, across both physical and digital spaces, in the face of erasure and fragmentation.
The Dispersed Museum is a practice, an approach, a constantly evolving perspective. From May 30 to June 8 in Bologna, it takes shape as Foreigners in Their Homeland. A collaboration between the Palestine Museum, the Department of the Arts of the University of Bologna, the k.i.n. network, independent curators, activists, and students, the initiative unfolds over ten days through a city-wide exhibition. The program includes talks, collective discussions, and opportunities to engage directly with Palestinian artists and their practices.
As the world watches, quoting Gina Nakhle Coller, Bologna becomes the site of a convergence of people, spaces, and realities gathering around the prefigurative power of art and the potential of collective reflection and action. Far from being fixed or definitive, this power is presented to be questioned, traversed, and inhabited by those who choose not to look away.
Curatorial team: Faisal Saleh, Massimiliano Nicola Mollona, Daria Passaponti, Giulia Rho and Ruba Salih
BIO
Basel Abbas and Ruanne Abou-Rahme work together across a range of sound, image, text, installation and performance practices. Their practice is engaged in the intersections between performativity, political imaginaries, the body and virtuality. Largely their approach has been one of sampling materials both existing and self-authored in the form of sound, image, text, objects and recasting them into altogether new ‘scripts’. The result is a practice that investigates the political, visceral, material possibilities of sound, image, text and site, taking on the form of multi-media installations and live sound/image performances.
Adiacenze is a curatorial space dedicated to the exploration of contemporary art. Since 2010, Adiacenze has been empowering emerging and mid-career artists to push boundaries and explore new artistic territories by nurturing an environment of research and experimentation and cultivating a network of interdisciplinary professionals. Adiacenze's diverse range of activities includes an exhibition and public program held in its space in Bologna and two residencies programs developed regionally (Prospettive) and internationally (SWAP). Additionally, Adiacenze has partnered with renowned national and international institutions and since 2018 it has curated the exhibition program at Casa della Cultura "Italo Calvino" in Calderara di Reno.
k.i.n. is a network project that brings together independent organizations engaged in contemporary art and culture. It is a growing, multicellular organism born from the synergy of 14 associations based in Bologna, united by a shared force through ongoing collaboration and open dialogue. The network acts as a resonating chamber, amplifying shared goals and intentions while preserving the unique identity of each participating entity. The following organizations are currently part of the project: Adiacenze, Alchemilla, ASAP, Checkpoint Charly, Gelateria Sogni di Ghiaccio, Lo Spazio Letterario, Luna APS, Maison Ventidue, Metoché, Nelumbo, Ottovolante, Parsec, Selene Centro Studi | EkoDanza, Tank, and TIST.
The land is calling the vanished through the song
The land haunts us
And we haunt them
The shadow, the echo, the ghosts of what remain
–Basel Abbas and Ruanne Abou-Rahme
In the context of The Dispersed Museum. Foreigners in Their Homeland ,Adiacenze is pleased to present Until we became fire and fire us (2023–), a two-channel video and sound installation by artists Basel Abbas and Ruanne Abou-Rahme, curated by Amerigo Mariotti and Giorgia Tronconi.
The work explores themes of loss, love, memory, and longing for land and freedom. Through sound, song and fragmented imagery, it evokes a sense of haunting and resistance. Appearing as poetry, broken melodies, or flashes of text and video, the installation reflects a yearning for “reconnection to a severed broken land, community, history, one that haunts, imprisons and moves us all at once.”
The piece is part of the broader long-term project May amnesia never kiss on the mouth, which investigates how communities from regions marked by colonial and capitalist-driven violence, particularly across Palestine, Iraq, Syria, and Yemen, bear witness to displacement and articulate forms of resistance through dance, songs, and performance. Drawing from the collected online recordings of anonymous figures singing, dancing, and speaking, the project revisits these acts through new performances developed in collaboration with contemporary Palestinian musicians Makimakkuk, Haykal, Julmud and dancer Rima Baransi. May amnesia examines the voice and body as political tools of resistance and reappearance, across both physical and digital spaces, in the face of erasure and fragmentation.
The Dispersed Museum is a practice, an approach, a constantly evolving perspective. From May 30 to June 8 in Bologna, it takes shape as Foreigners in Their Homeland. A collaboration between the Palestine Museum, the Department of the Arts of the University of Bologna, the k.i.n. network, independent curators, activists, and students, the initiative unfolds over ten days through a city-wide exhibition. The program includes talks, collective discussions, and opportunities to engage directly with Palestinian artists and their practices.
As the world watches, quoting Gina Nakhle Coller, Bologna becomes the site of a convergence of people, spaces, and realities gathering around the prefigurative power of art and the potential of collective reflection and action. Far from being fixed or definitive, this power is presented to be questioned, traversed, and inhabited by those who choose not to look away.
Curatorial team: Faisal Saleh, Massimiliano Nicola Mollona, Daria Passaponti, Giulia Rho and Ruba Salih
BIO
Basel Abbas and Ruanne Abou-Rahme work together across a range of sound, image, text, installation and performance practices. Their practice is engaged in the intersections between performativity, political imaginaries, the body and virtuality. Largely their approach has been one of sampling materials both existing and self-authored in the form of sound, image, text, objects and recasting them into altogether new ‘scripts’. The result is a practice that investigates the political, visceral, material possibilities of sound, image, text and site, taking on the form of multi-media installations and live sound/image performances.
Adiacenze is a curatorial space dedicated to the exploration of contemporary art. Since 2010, Adiacenze has been empowering emerging and mid-career artists to push boundaries and explore new artistic territories by nurturing an environment of research and experimentation and cultivating a network of interdisciplinary professionals. Adiacenze's diverse range of activities includes an exhibition and public program held in its space in Bologna and two residencies programs developed regionally (Prospettive) and internationally (SWAP). Additionally, Adiacenze has partnered with renowned national and international institutions and since 2018 it has curated the exhibition program at Casa della Cultura "Italo Calvino" in Calderara di Reno.
k.i.n. is a network project that brings together independent organizations engaged in contemporary art and culture. It is a growing, multicellular organism born from the synergy of 14 associations based in Bologna, united by a shared force through ongoing collaboration and open dialogue. The network acts as a resonating chamber, amplifying shared goals and intentions while preserving the unique identity of each participating entity. The following organizations are currently part of the project: Adiacenze, Alchemilla, ASAP, Checkpoint Charly, Gelateria Sogni di Ghiaccio, Lo Spazio Letterario, Luna APS, Maison Ventidue, Metoché, Nelumbo, Ottovolante, Parsec, Selene Centro Studi | EkoDanza, Tank, and TIST.